Tartine Country Style Bread, My Way

This bread haunted me after I read the cookbook.  A recipe that is 30 plus pages?  Scary, but also captivating.  I loved its obsessive detail and the care the author put into teaching mere laymen how to accomplish his award-winning, world-renowned bread.  He really wanted to teach comfort with the bread and this dough, and that is something that is so important with bread baking.  Going through the rhythm of making a recipe over and over until it is almost automatic.

My version won’t be quite that obsessive.  It won’t be quite that painstakingly precise.   His recipe as written is perfect.  However, for those unlikely to take it on because of the intimidation factor in the cookbook, I want to encourage you to give my slightly adapted recipe/instructions a try.  I think it is pretty amazing and slightly less overwhelming.  Maybe the entirety of San Francisco won’t line up to buy a loaf, but I am sure at least half would.

A few notes before we dive in.

This is a wild yeast recipe.  Which means…you have to create a starter.  This will take about a week or two, before you can even bake the bread.  Yeah, this is not a quick turnaround.  You can give this bread a try if you are thinking you would like to eat your bread in a few hours, or any of my others if this week suits you better.

I previously likened this recipe to a complicated dance you try to learn by reading about it.  It seemed nearly impossible the first time through–the starter, the leaven, the turning, the folding!  Crazy.  But by the second time through it was already easier, and it kept getting easier.  Now I throw things together and just figure it will work (and mostly it does, but occasionally, I get flops too!).  And that is really my plea.  Give it a shot.  You are out flour, water, and a teensy bit of salt only if it all goes really poorly.  And really, the beauty of this recipe as developed by the Tartine master is that it is quite forgiving.  Can’t turn it every 30 minutes? (Snort!  Me either!).  Do it after 2 hours.  Don’t want to keep your home a warm 80 degrees for proofing bread?  Yeah, me either.  Throw some more time at the rise and see if that works.  I do think you will need to make it a few times through before you are completely satisfied, but there are worse areas of trial and error!

Now, please know that I have had a poor result once when I got a little too carefree with the timing and extended everything a bit too much in some raging heat.  I overproofed the bread, and it just didn’t rise in the oven.  It looked low and was dense.  When cutting into it, instead of a network of lovely holes throughout, they had sort of consolidated into one large area in the bread.  Not ideal.  But do you know what?  The flavor was still great.  It made good bruschetta style toast for tartines for dinner, it made great croutons and fabulous Panzanella.  So, while not what I was after, it was still worthwhile.

Finally, there is a little video embedded in the recipe below that demonstrates the folding technique for this video.  You can click the link embeded below to watch it.  It is easy enough when you see it, but reading about it feels like trying to read Greek if you are, well, not Greek!

Print

Tartine's Country Style Bread


Ingredients

For the Starter and Leaven

  • 1000 grams white bread flour
  • 1000 grams whole-wheat flour
  • Water

For the Dough

  • 200 grams leaven
  • 750 grams water divided into 700 and 50
  • 900 grams white bread flour
  • 100 grams whole-wheat flour plus more for dusting
  • 20 grams fine sea salt
  • wheat or rice flour for bowls

Instructions

Make the starter

  1. Combine 1,000 grams white-bread flour with 1,000 grams whole-wheat flour.  You may not need all of this, but you can use it to continue to feed the starter.  Put 100 grams of warm water (about 80 degrees) in a small jar or container and add 100 grams of the mixed flours. Use your fingers to mix until thoroughly combined and the mixture is the consistency of thick batter. Cover with a towel and let sit at room temperature until mixture begins to bubble and puff, 2 to 3 days.

  2. When starter begins to show signs of activity, begin regular feedings. Keep the starter at room temperature, and at the same time each day discard 80 percent of the starter and feed remaining starter with equal parts warm water and white-wheat flour mix (50 grams of each is fine). When starter begins to rise and fall predictably and takes on a slightly sour smell, it’s ready; this should take about 1 week.(Reserve remaining flour mix from the original 50/50 white and whole wheat mix for leaven.)

Make the leaven:

  1. The night before baking, discard all but 1 tablespoon of the mature starter. Mix the remaining starter with 200 grams of warm water and stir with your hand to disperse. Add 200 grams of the white-wheat flour mix and combine well. Cover with a towel and let rest at room temperature for 12 hours or until aerated and puffed in appearance. To test for readiness, drop a tablespoon of leaven into a bowl of room-temperature water; if it floats it’s ready to use. If it doesn’t, allow more time to ferment.  This is an essential step.  I have had the leaven get ready much quicker when it is especially warm.  Alternatively, mixing in the early am with warm water and a warm environment can lead to a dough that can be baked same day.  

Make the dough:

  1. In a large bowl, combine 200 grams of leaven with 700 grams of warm water and stir to disperse. (Reserve remaining leaven for future loaves--it is now your starter and will require regular discarding and feeding the same as above.  If you wish to slow down the need to feed it daily, store in the refrigerator.)

  2. Add 800 grams of white-bread flour and 200 grams of whole-wheat flour to the bowl of water and leaven and use your hands to mix until no traces of dry flour remain. The dough will be sticky, ragged, and feel heavy and dense. Cover bowl with a towel and let dough rest for 25 to 40 minutes at room temperature.  This seems small, but this little rest is the autolyse step and is super important as it will ultimately change the texture and rise of your loaf!

  3. Add 20 grams fine sea salt and 50 grams warm water to the dough, and use hands to integrate salt and water into dough thoroughly.  I find this is a fun little exercise squeezing the dough through your hands until it comes apart and then back together again.

  4. Cover dough with a towel and transfer to a warmish location, 75 to 80 degrees ideally. Let the dough rise for about 30 minutes. Fold dough by dipping hand in water, taking hold of the underside of the dough and stretching it up over the rest of the dough. Repeat this action 3 more times, rotating bowl a quarter turn for each fold. Do this every half-hour for 2 1/2 hours more (3 hours total). The dough should be lighter feeling and increase in volume 20 to 30 percent. If not, continue to let rise and fold for up to an hour more.  A small note here...I have done this first bulk fermentation rise overnight, where I can assure you I was NOT waking up every half hour to turn and mix the dough.  It was also cooler than 75 degrees, and it took a few more hours to get to what I would consider lighter.  You have some ability to personalize your dough here, based on the warmth of the room, and the length of time you want this step to take.

  5. Transfer dough to a lightly floured work surface and cut in two.  Try not to allow too much additional flour to work into the dough, but by turning the dough, work it into taut rounds* (link to video on how to do this below!) Place the dough rounds on a work surface, cover with a towel, and let rest 30 minutes.

  6. Line two 10- to 12-inch bread-proofing baskets or mixing bowls with towels. Use some of the flour (this is where you would use some rice flour if you want a lovely bright white outside, or you can do a mix of whole wheat and rice flour) to generously flour towels.  

  7. And now the folding.  These directions seem overdone and it is easy to wonder what this contributes to the dough, but I assure you it is important.  These folds help give the internal structure of the bread support.  It basically builds important structure and tension into the dough helping it rise and hold its shape well.  Dust the rounds with whole-wheat flour and place them on a work surface, floured side down.  Start with the first round, and imagine the round divided into quadrants.  Starting with the quadrant on your left, reach under the dough and stretch it out further to the left, away from the ball, and then fold that dough over to the middle of the ball, leaving the right side uncovered.  Then move systematically through the bottom quadrant, doing the same, then the right, and finally ending with the top. Roll dough over so the folded side becomes the bottom of the loaf. Shape into a smooth, taut ball. Repeat with the other round.

  8. Transfer rounds, seam-side up, to prepared baskets. Cover with a towel and return dough to the 75- to 80-degree environment for 2 to 3 hours.

  9. About 30 minutes before baking, place a Dutch oven or lidded cast-iron pot in the oven and heat it to 500 degrees.  Very carefully remove the heated pot from oven and gently turn 1 loaf into pan seam-side down. Use a lame or a sharp knife or kitchen scissors to score the top of the bread a few times to allow for expansion, cover and transfer to oven. Reduce temperature to 450 degrees and cook for 20 minutes. Carefully remove lid (steam may release) and cook for 20 more minutes or until crust is a rich, golden brown color.  I like to take the bread's temperature aiming at about 210 degrees so I know it is fully cooked.

  10. Transfer bread to a wire rack to cool for at least 25 minutes before slicing. The bottom of the loaf should sound hollow when tapped. Increase oven temperature to 500 degrees, clean out the pot and repeat this process with the second loaf.